Risks in Rainfed Agriculture and Farmers' Adaptation Practices: A Case of Cotton Farmers of Maharashtra

The present study aims to profile the risks faced by the rainfed farmers and the management strategies adopted by them based on a field survey of 244 cotton farmers of Maharashtra. The farmers in the region face risk mainly due to late onset of monsoon and less rainfall, pest and disease incidence, availability and poor quality of inputs and variability in prices. They also undertake various strategies to minimise the risk, either ex ante or ex post, and the extent of adoption of these strategies varies among the small and large farmer categories. The correlates of adoption of selected risk management strategies are traced using Logit and Tobit regression. While the size of operational holding, area under irrigation, and education of the farmers affect mixed farming positively, diversification is positively affected by the area under cotton, number of plots and accessibility to non-farm income. Total area under irrigation, value of assets and the regional advantage helps in micro-irrigation. Interestingly, farmers who avail noninstitutional source have higher probability of adoption of crop insurance. Migration, the key ex post strategy is positively influenced by the number of male members and negatively by the dependent family members, size of operational holding and education.